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• Wednesday, February 4, 2009 10:58 PM

  Oral Culture

  I'd like to offer another point of view about oral culture because I think it was dismissed too perfunctorily in Cary's response.

  Actually, the things people say and the stories they tell do not vanish just because they are oral. Much is preserved and passed on - that's the culture part. Other people listen and repeat both the form and substance of what was said. Ideas are transmitted. Entire stories are remembered. Useful or clever phrases are picked up on and spread rapidly, becoming enduring parts of languages.

  Cataloging the entire corpus of human speech (or keyboarding)is not realistic or desirable. Collective selection from the whole dialogue is what creates value.

  Think about comedy, for example. We know certain things - cultural matters, mostly - that can be manipulated for humorous purposes. We laugh at impressions because we recognize the tone of voice and style of speaking of the well-known person being imitated. George Carlin talks about the Modern Man, and we recognize the stereotypes he's making fun of as well as the glib language that we all use to talk about them. (I'm an alpha male on beta blockers.) Both the familiar ideas and the innovative way they are played with are what make us laugh.

  There's nothing funny about machines storing and cataloging all of our ideas for retrieval by future generations. On the other hand, I think I have an angle for my next screenplay.

  —eugene skinner Read eugene skinner's other letters
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